Thursday, September 22, 2011

42. LA INSULAR CIGAR & CIGARETTE FACTORY in Binondo

Turn of the Century postcard of La Insular Cigar and Cigarette Factory

Postcard by Lambert

The La Insular Cigar & Cigarette Factory was a famous landmark in Binondo before the war. The factory together with Hotel Oriente and other building in its surrounding was ravaged by fire during the liberation of Manila in 1944. It is very unfortunate that this important landmark was lost. Now the Metrobank Binondo building stood on the former site of the factory.

In my collection I have some old postcards, photos and cigarette labels of La Insular which I would like to share. The photos depict the daily life of tobacco workers inside the factory. Here is a glimpse of the glory days of the La Insular Cigar and Cigarette Factory.

Sepia toned postcard of the factory

Postcard of the factory with Binondo Church belfry at the background

History: La Insular, Plaza
Calderon de la Barca Plaza Calderon de la Barca in Binondo retained most of
the period houses and buildings built during the 19th century. One of those was
the La Insular Building. The company of La Insular was founded by Joaquin
Santamarina way back during Spanish colonial times. In 1878, Santamarina
decided to go into the tobacco manufacturing business. He stored tobacco leaves
in a warehouse for five years before he went into manufacturing. In 1883, he
used five-year old tobacco leaves to make his cigars and La Insular was born.

The building of La Insular was built in 1888 at Plaza
Calderon de la Barca with Juan Jose Hervas, then Manila's Municipal Architect
as designer. Designed along Moorish lines, the building became a notable
landmark in Binondo's major plaza, together with the old Hotel de Oriente. As a
business, La Insular continued to be an economic presence in the

Philippines until the prewar years.

Turn of the century photo of the La Insular building beside the Hotel de Oriente on the left.

La Insular exported cigars and tobacco to different
countries abroad, with the majority going to the United States and England. Its
Tres Coronas were especially favored by the English. One of the best customers
of La Insular was King Alfonso XIII of Spain. He gave the company royal
authority to name a cigar, "King Alfonso XIII" with his own
signature.

The La Insular building retained its old Spanish period
building in Binondo. It was later destroyed by fire caused by bombs during the
Second World War.

7 comments:

You have a wonderful collection of ads, labels and postcards. I very much enjoyed myself and also learned much about the cigarette industry in the Philippine Islands. Thanks for sharing. I have a question, your Fighter label seems to state it was made in P.R. Why not P. I.? I you're willed to share more of your knowledge, please write as I have several beautiful packets from the Philippines too. Thanks, Jimrustykamel@gmail.com

Hello, my name is hannah cutts. I am having an art exhibition in Brisbane in February. I have just spent 3 weeks in manila and Quezon City and myself and a manila arts collective have had various pieces made by local artisans and industry. We have the opportunity to print a set of silk malongs. Instead of using traditional patterning I was hoping to get a high res image from a vintage cigarette pack. Can you help at all. If so, I would love to pay for a high resolution print and send you some of the prints.ThanksHannahMail@cuttscreative.com.au

My Grandfather, Antonio Beltran was Acting General Manager of La Insular during the Japanese occupation years as Mora had been called back to Spain. He had stored a lot of personal possessions there (including my mother's red white and blue dress she had been saving for the Americans). She recalled the phone call he received from Ramon Garcia telling him that the Americans had bombed the place and burned it to the ground. Nevertheless, after their escape from Malate and trek to the North, the whole family met up at La Insular. Some of the out buildings were still extant so some of the family stayed their while the rest wandered over to Tanduay distillery were they stayed for a few months. My mother met many Americans at Tanduay and was engaged to one of them before she met my father.